In through the nose, out through the mouth

Sitting in a warm coffee house that smells of dulce de leche is one of the most peaceful experiences that this walk of life has to offer.

PDF Portfolio

Web Critique

Since the boom of the Internet, humans have explored the boundaries of what websites can do and how they offer a quick and efficient tool of communication. They are easy to get to and stand to be the first impression that many get of a certain company, person or cause. The two Internet sites I have chose are http://www.redcross.org and http://www.dmagazine.com. They American Red Cross is my chosen organization that I am currently designing my poster, handout, brochure and newsletter for. DMagazine is the company that I am interested in working for once I graduate this summer.

Let's first look at the American Red Cross' website. While browsing the homepage of their website, there is easy navigation. A tool bar of different options, including "Preparing for Emergencies, Getting Assistance, Giving and Getting Involved, Working with the Red Cross and Your Local Red Cross" allow you to find where you need to go. Once your mouse glides over these different areas of text, there is a drop-down menu that gives you more options so that you may further your search in where you would like to go. The overall presentation is nice. The colors are taupe, red, light taupe and blue. They are nice and pleasant on the eyes. It is not the most entertaining website, but it informs and educates those who are seeking information about the American Red Cross. The website does a good job of being consistent in this presentation throughout the website. Sine organization has so much to offer and information is easy to access, it is susceptible a lack of repetition throughout the website. They have done a good job of having a unified theme running throughout the website. The layout is a vertical layout, and does not require a horizontal scroll. This is a nice touch for the users. BEcause it is a popular organization, the number of users is high and it must be as simple as possible to access the website throughout. The content is relevant, accurate and informative. The homepage has a video, uploaded from YouTube.com, and it shows how the Red Cross volunteers focus on the children of Samoa. It is moving and effective. It allows the visitor of the site to see the good work that the organization is doing for the world.

DMagazine is a local magazine for Dallas, TX that touches on entertainment, news and different cultural topics during our time. It is a relevant magazine that markets to spans of people from all walks of life. Once I graduate, I would like to be an editor of the magazine. Whether dealing with the content or the general layout, I feel that I will have a good eye in knowing what readers want to read and what is important to them. Once on their homepage, it is overwhelmingly busy and you are constantly torn between what hot topic to choose. At the top toolbar there are the options "Blogs, Best of Big D, Restaurants, Bars, Entertainment, and Party Pics". Underneath the top toolbar is a smaller toolbar that says "Home Shopping, Home & Garden, Real Estate, Weddings, Travel, and Find a Doctor". These main search topics are broad and general, yet they reach every spectrum of the population of Dallas. The overall presentation is clean with nice lines and calming colors. I enjoy the patriotic colors and the "news like" appearance. Throughout the website, there is a constant repetition of font colors, alignments and use of proximity. Overall, it has a vertical layout, yet there is a horizontal scroll bar as well. The scroll bar isn't noticeable enough to make a negative mark on anyone's personal preferences. The content is in step with the theme of what DMagazine offers and sells them to be.

If I had to choose the website that I felt was more consistent and had the nicer presentation, I would go with the American Red Cross website. The content was less appealing to me personally, but it had a nice calming effect that was consistent with the overall tone of the organization. Easy to navigate, it was user-friendly and consistent throughout the entire time.

Portfolio Newsletter

Portfolio Flyer

Portfolio Brochure

Portfolio Poster

Coverpage

Plato's Closet Clip

Disregard the fuzziness...

Dad's Logo!

Dad,
Here is a quick snippet of a possible logo? I'm still getting used to InDesign and Photoshop.
I love you!
Emily

Holiday Brochure

Mexico Project

Print Design Critique #4: Teleflora Floral Guide brochure

The audience intended for this brochure are newly-engaged women planning a wedding, wedding planners, and event coordinators.  The design rules are applied very nicely in this brochure.  There are a lot of colorful pictures of the floral arrangements that they offer and it shows a great variety of color throughout the piece.  Teleflora does a great job aligning all of the fonts flush-left.  The first page of the brochure is center-aligned but it creates the right amount of contrast against the other pages.  They do a great job with proximity.  The front page is of a white bouquet and is not too busy.  It allows your eye to see the wording clearly, yet gives you an idea of what the brochure is all about.  The repetition is the Teleflora logo and the fonts used in the brochure.  Contrast is used nicely; there are hard lines throughout the pages and plenty of white space that the text is on.  The font is just the right size - not too small and not too overwhelmingly big.  It does look like a unified document because of the alignment, fonts, pictures, and repetitive use of fonts.  Personally, I like the design.  It is peaceful on the eyes and make me want to open it and see what other floral arrangements Teleflora offers.  

Print Design Critique #3: Sprint brochure

The design audience for the Sprint brochure is professionals, businesses, and adults who are looking for the most direct approach.  They don't need colorful graphics and fancy fonts for this brochure to appeal to them.  Proximity is used very nicely in this brochure.  There is white space that brings contrast throughout the wording and the tables.  All of the alignment is flush-left, which creates a nice, clean edge throughout the design.  It causes your eye to naturally move from line to line, and you don't have to search for the next piece of information.  The repetition seen in the brochure are the  colors used (black, gray and yellow); there are also two graphs that mirror each other so that you can compare the two very easily.  The words "Any mobile anytime" is repeated twice (on the second page and the last page), as well as the Sprint logo.  There is nice contrast.  Some of the text is worded on a gray text box which makes it stand out.  On the front page, There is a lot of great contrast: the large image, a yellow diagonal line along the left side, and a bold horizontal line along the top.  The piece is very unified, and the design elements do a great job tying it all together.  The design would not make every person stop and stare, but for its audience it fits perfectly.  I would not pick it up to read unless I just wanted statistics and to check out comparison among other cellphone service companies.  I do not think that I would change anything in this piece.  It is unified, professional, stands out, and is very clean.   

Print Design Critique #2: Saxon Woods Newsletter

Welcome to Saxon Woods, a self-proclaimed oasis from the cookie-cutter suburban standard found in McKinney, Texas. The towering stone walls of the complex scream pomp, power and prestige to those who happen to step on their cobbled driveway.
If only their newsletter mirrored that type of perfection. Saxon Woods has a plethora of various tenants ranging from teenagers fresh out of high school to senior citizens reluctant to check into a retirement home. The newsletter attempts to target the entire spectrum, but hardly does a job worth blinking at. As far as white space is concerned, Saxon Woods believes that fun, cartoon clip art should inhabit the area created for absence of activity. The only alignment visible is the infamous center-alignment. Saxon Woods does a royal job of butchering a seemingly harmless alignment. Without a congruent sense of flush-left or flush-right, the entire newsletter is bound to be kindling for the next fire in the family fireplace. There is one sign of cohesiveness and uniformity: the 70's-inspired flowers framing the staff list. To save the overall direction of the newsletter, more repetition could be the saving grace, alas there is hardly any to be found. There is no contrast in this document. The pages are a white blur of confusion and monotony; the main title of the document desires to remain silent.
Overall, the document has no uniformity that ties the piece together. An array of fonts and monochromatic pictures don't give the design a focused appearance. If I were to arrange the newsletter to my liking, I would keep the basic content of the newsletter, but create a sense of professionalism by giving the newsletter contrast, changing the alignment, and adding subtle repetition. This document screams for a direct theme and message, and in return, your audience will appreciate the textual sanity.

Print Design Critique #1: Place to Be Newsletter

As I walked into the musty, wood-stained office of Place to Be, my eyes scanned the scene, looking for something, anything that would be seen hanging from the door posts of the tenants for this month.  There, in all its glory, sat the bright orange newsletter glowing brilliantly against the mahogany desk that cradled the paper.  Gingerly, I picked it up, surveyed the room and quickly made my great escape through the towering door frame that was much too grand for any leasing office.  The targeted audience for this particular newsletter was a younger adult, primarily a college student.  Proximity is used in this piece, but not very efficiently.  There are multiple boxed texts are spaced without rhyme or reason.  The various pictures were strewn on the page like a lazy afterthought that was supposed to add pizzazz, but only cluttered the page.  There is no clear alignment seen to the naked eye, or any eye for that matter.  The main title, "September SPECIALS", was center-aligned (naturally), as well as every piece of text within the individual text boxes.   This document could use some sort of uniform alignment that made it appear more organized and thought-out.  The design incorporates some tacky repetition.  There are black stars found on the document in various places and the text is boxed in repeatedly.  The additional graphics used in the piece are a bit too much, causing your mind to spin and your eyes to cross.  In regards to contrast,  there are no particular texts or symbols that cause your eye to focus in one thing.  The document is so busy that the reader doesn't get a clear picture of what the message is.  The design elements help unify the document, but do not do it in a prestigious, classy way by any means.  How is a annoyingly big smiley face pointing to "Big Sale!" supposed to encourage you to rent from Place to Be?  The title words, "September SPECIALS" do not encourage you to take a second glance and you quickly lose interest.  The use of the repetitive stars do allow the reader to gather that the document is unified, yet crafted by an 8-year-old.  I argue that a simple sample of clip art does not justify all that was clearly missing or poorly constructed.  Ever heard of Microsoft Word vomit?  Other than the color of paper it was printed on, I would not have cast a second glance at this newsletter, and will refuse to do so in the future. 

Maui Project

JOUR 2200 Radio Exercise

JOUR 2200 Gulls Exercise

The city that never sleeps

Hello all --

I am currently writing at my sister's disheveled dorm, on the 12th floor of Alumni Hall. We are currently in the grievous process of moving all of her belongings from 27th street to 30th street. Sure, three blocks sounds like NOTHIN', but when you're carrying a total of 40-50 lbs. per trip, it is quite tiring.

I arrived here around 7pm Saturday night. That night, we went to an adorable Italiano restaurante called Gusto, in Greenwich Village, and then made our way to a French cafe with an ADORABLE garden out back for some Banana Flambe paired with a cup of coffee. One of my favorite things about this city is the food. Every delicious cuisine is available to you at any location, any time.

Sunday morning we went to Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem with Jenny's Menswear crew. There was a group of around 10 of us, and we all went with one of the professors, Professor Pascall. Sweet, sweet lady of around 55. She had a wonderful Spanish accent and was so kind. After the service, we went to an amazing restaurant, buffet style! Soul food was on the menu. The owner of the restaurant greeted each one of us individually, and actually asked if I was Britney Spears. Me!? Britney!? No thank you.

Afterwards, we took a subway to the piers and walked. Beautiful, yet dreary due to the misty weather. We returned to Jenny's dorm and I took a three and a half hour nap. WHAT!? I was exhausted from travelling/lack of sleep. I felt really rested afterwards. Heck, I'm on vacation -- I will nap as I please! Later that evening, I returned to meet Jenny at her apartment on 30th, and Marcus came over for a Chess match. After he killed me, we walked to McDonalds for a midnight snack. Their parfaits are super good -- especially at night!

Today, I awoke to a musical beat sounding from the neighboring wall. Good morning from New York! Me and Jenny went to breakfast around 10:30, and then proceeded on to F.I.T. for her last presentation of the semester. I was able to go to the classroom with her and got to sit back and watch as different classmates stood in front of the room and explain their design, the inspiration, why they chose the fabrics, and the functionality, etc. I felt as if I had turned on the TV and Bravo's Project Runway was on. It was fascinating. To think that this is my sister's life blows my mind. She was selected to present and she did a wonderful job. She tailored an incredible black blazer, and did an amazing job on it. Don't let her tell you otherwise.

For today, we are focusing on moving everything out, and eventually grabbing some New York pizza!

Tomorrow we fly out for London at 6pm, so if you're reading this, pray that me and Jenny will be safe during our travels! It is somewhat intimidating, but I am not in the least bit scared. The Lord is good and is watching over me and my sister -- why should I be afraid?

In His name,
emily

Preparations

In less than 48 hours, I will be on an airplane headed for New York City. Five days from now, I will be in London, England.

Overwhelmed is what I feel. I have no idea what to expect and very little hopes for this trip, fully knowing that it will meet my every desire while hopping from country to country.

These are my travels.

Keep up with my adventures so that I won't have to e-mail everyone regularly. The internet should be vastly utilized, as seen today.

My next post will contain details about NYC!

I will leave you with this...

Romans 8:1-11
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [1] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you [2] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [3] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

-emily